Monday, March 17, 2008

A guest blogger blogs on the blog!

Ten Commandments Reduxby Joe

Imagine how the world would have been different if God had had theforesight to include slavery in the Ten Commandments. Sometime inhistory---for example, during the Babylonian Captivity, control of theintellectual Greeks by the conquering Romans, centuries ofinter-tribal slavery on several continents, or the shameful episode ofslavery in America, the land of the free---God must have realized theomission, slapped his forehead, and said, "What was I thinking?"

Now, I don't mean to tell God how to run his business, never havingbeen in that line of work myself, but if you're going to take the time(especially if you have a limitless supply of it) to tell people howto act, why not use that opportunity to protect the most vulnerable?If I may speak for the human race (and with all due respect), you maywork in mysterious ways, but we're the ones getting our asses kickeddown here.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently said that to run a country,a legislature only needs the Ten Commandments as a guide. But arethey so all-inclusive? You can have slaves while honoring yourparents; they might have had their own slaves. You can have slaveswithout killing them, stealing from them, or even lying to them. Infact, though I don't know of any such instances, I have to believe theBible was used by people like Vice-President, later Senator, John C.Calhoun in the 19th century to support their idea that slavery was nota necessary evil, but a "positive good."

Maybe there was something important about the number ten thatprecluded adding any more ideas---maximum marketing impact? Makingallowance for ADD?

In that case, he could have combined a couple: "Thou shalt not stealthy neighbors goods or even think about it." (Keep in mind that hisphrasing has always been better than mine.) If there was notsomething important about the number ten, how about also adding oneabout rape?

4 comments:

Nice post, Joe. Regarding the number 10, we must keep in mind they were written pre-MS Office days. Frankly, I'm supprised there were as many as 10. Do you realize how hard it is to carve a stone tablet????